City Of Grand Rapids Continues To Monitor River

City Of Grand Rapids Continues To Monitor River

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.– A sense of relief in the city of Grand Rapids Monday as the Grand River recedes, there is still a lot of work ahead but city officials are hoping the worst is over.

“I am so incredibly proud of this community and the way it responded to this threat” said Mayor George Heartwell.

One major priority during this flood was to protect the waste water treatment plant, crews worked tirelessly to build a barrier that seemed to work. The mayor says they have seen no in system overflow but he still is encouraging residents to conserve their water use for the next few days.

But victory really just can’t be declared yet, there are places around the city they are still closely watching. “There will be damage we know that when these waters go down they’re going to uncover erosion, bank erosion along the river walk, damage to the flood wall that will have to be repaired.”

City Manager Greg Sundstrom echoed the mayors concerns, “things can still go wrong and that’s our job to still plan and prepare and were still taking pro-active actions today.”

The city manager says two of their big things they concerns right now, just how much more rain we will get this week and any potential failure in infrastructure. He says they have been working closely with MDOT and as of the now bridges are structurally sound.

A lot of planning went into preparing for this flood, not just this week but for years, “That’s the heart of the message that I want to deliver today because people have sacrificed in the city to make those investments, we’ve invested in our flood walls in our storm sewer system. That doesn’t happen for free that takes sacrifice for every person living in the city of Grand Rapids. Today we can say that has paid off it has paid off enormously and we can be proud of that.”